History Old (19teens) car question?????

My Granddad was born 1890s. He used to tell as a kid the start of seeing cars...transition from horse and carriage.
He and Grandmother grew up near Scranton, Pa. He used to tell about all the innovative designs at the time, one I remember a car his friend had that the transmission was extremely simple.
He said there were two opposing cones, the front driven by the motor, rear connected to rear axle. There was a belt over them which had a lever with a fork in it. In the floorboard was a slot, so you could move lever side to side which of course moved the belt. Since cones were the same belt tension was always the same.
He said at lowest side it would only go a slow walking speed but climb any hill. Going across it would fly, which back then I'm guessing 25-35mph?
Anyone know what it was?

 

they call it a Continuously Variable Transmission these days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuously_variable_transmission#Cone

there are several different designs of CVTs, the variable width cone pulleys seem to be more in vogue

 

Could it have been a metz or cartercar that used a friction drive? They had discs not cones but are similar

 

Snomobiles used the CVT Squirrel posred as well.

 

from 1:17 to avoid the **** music and spiel

 

A machinist back East (Michigan, M***.?) had a drive like this (CVT) in a tether car 20 years ago. I had opted for the ring & pinion diff, housing from 2 cup type welch plugs.
But from a pure physics view, the CVT was most intriguing.
These were cars with the .60 cu.in. displacement...

 

Thanks! I can only imagine what it must have been like 100 years ago. Electrics, steam. All the creative mechanical geniuses at work.

 

And some people think Electric and CVT is something new!